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riversedge's JournalHillary Clintons comeback tour to include a speech at Georgetown
Hillary has a lot of good she can and will do for folks left in her.
GREAT pic with that banner behind her.
Hillary Clinton’s comeback tour to include a speech at Georgetown
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/reliable-source/wp/2017/03/27/hillary-clintons-comeback-tour-to-include-a-speech-at-georgetown/?utm_term=.8e69d8fe264b
By Emily Heil March 27 at 8:46 AM
https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=
&w=480
Hillary Clinton’s post-election agenda is looking familiar. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Out of the woods, indeed — Hillary Clinton said earlier this month that she’s ready to return to public life after a post-election-loss respite that included lots of strolls in her home town of Chappaqua, N.Y., and her don’t-call-it-a-comeback tour will include a speech Friday at Georgetown University.
Clinton will talk about the role of women in securing last year’s Colombian peace agreement at a ceremony for an award named in her honor by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. That’s a topic close to her — as secretary of state, she supported the historic accord between the Colombian government and rebels that ended decades of violence.
And her appearance hints that her post-election agenda will look a lot like the one she championed as first lady, a senator and as SecState: focusing on women and girls around the world and their often-unsung role in the peace process.
Of course, the venue is an ultra-friendly one — Clinton is the institute’s founding chair, and its executive director is Melanne Verveer, Clinton’s longtime aide and confidante, who was her chief of staff in the White House and later was appointed first U.S. ambassador at large for global women’s issues....................
Three burglars entered an Oklahoma home. The owners son opened fire with an AR-15, deputies say.
These kids did wrong-very wrong. And the young women who turned herself in. 3 young lives gone and one probably facing long prison term.
Something seems out of place here. Self defense says the article. I wonder if he gave warning shots first. Just seems so horrible.
Three burglars entered an Oklahoma home. The owner’s son opened fire with an AR-15, deputies say.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/03/28/three-burglars-entered-an-oklahoma-home-the-owners-son-opened-fire-with-an-ar-15-deputies-say/?tid=pm_national_pop&utm_term=.00835d171b99
By Ben Guarino March 28 at 2:52 AM
Law enforcement officers investigate the scene of a failed robbery that led to the death of three men who broke into the house in Broken Arrow, Okla. (Ian Maule/Tulsa World via AP)
Gunfire rang out Monday afternoon in a home in Broken Arrow, an Oklahoma city 15 miles southeast of Tulsa. Three intruders were killed after the son of the homeowner fired a semiautomatic rifle in what local law enforcement officers later described as an act of self-defense, though their investigation remains open.
The intruders — a 16-year-old, a 17-year-old and a man thought to be 18 or 19 — had smashed open the back door of the house, the Wagoner County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement posted to Facebook. Their plan was burglary, authorities said.
They wore gloves, masks and all-black clothes, Wagoner County Deputy Nick Mahoney told Tulsa World. Two of the teenagers were armed, one with a knife and the other with brass knuckles.
The trio reportedly exchanged words with the 23-year-old son of the homeowner, whose name has also not been released. He fired on them with an AR-15, a popular semiautomatic rifle, officials told Fox 23....................
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/three-dead-after-broken-arrow-area-homeowner-s-son-shoots/article_64c15c80-0019-56d6-9322-c1b93c0ff5d0.html
.......................The homeowner and the son, who reportedly did not know the intruders, went to the Wagoner County Sheriff’s Office to submit formal statements. Mahoney said the shootings appear to have been in self-defense, but he clarified that the case will remain under investigation for some time.
The fatal shootings could be viewed by prosecutors as falling under Oklahoma’s “Make My Day” law, which says a resident has the right to use deadly force if an intruder has entered or is in the process of entering the resident’s home.
Tuesday News: Trump Declares War on Environment; Nunes Must Recuse; Perriello, Northam Tied in New
All of these stories have embedded links.
Tuesday News: Trump Declares War on Environment; Nunes Must Recuse; Perriello, Northam Tied in New Poll
http://bluevirginia.us/2017/03/tuesday-news-trump-declares-war-environment-nunes-must-recuse-perriello-northam-tied-new-poll
March 28, 2017 53
by Lowell
Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, March 28.
Trump moves decisively to wipe out Obama’s climate-change record (Possibly THE single worst thing Trump will do as President, and that’s saying a lot!)
Nunes’s secret White House visit on Trump surveillance files triggers calls for recusal
Trump, Ryan differ on how much relief to offer the middle class in tax-code overhaul (“President Trump wants a tax cut across the board, according to the plan he published during the campaign. But House Speaker Paul Ryan and colleagues have put forward a plan that would not substantially reduce taxes for the middle class, and many households would pay more.”)
Gorsuch may fall short of votes needed for smooth Supreme Court confirmation
..............MORE>......
House Intel Chair Devin Nuness One-Man War on the Pentagon
I wanted to know more about Nunes so started reading some articles about him.
Very informative article. Nunes really did not back down on trying to keep this isolated base simply because of his families ancestry ties to the islands. He uses his influence anyway he can. 
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/421842/devin-nunes-pentagon-fight-lajes-air-force-base
House Intel Chair Devin Nunes’s One-Man War on the Pentagon Nunes (left) and Paul Ryan in committee, March 2014. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty)
by Brendan Bordelon July 31, 2015 4:00 AM @brendanbordelon
The powerful Republican is battling the DoD to move a massive intelligence complex to an isolated island in the Azores, at a reported extra cost of $1.2 billion. Why?
Air-traffic controllers waved off the plane carrying Representative Devin Nunes (R., Calif.) and several congressmen from the House Intelligence Committee as it descended toward the single runway at Lajes Field, a sleepy U.S. Air Force base perched along a windswept Azores island 1,000 miles from the European mainland. High winds sweeping in from the sea prevented the plane from landing, and the delegation was hastily diverted to an airstrip on a neighboring island 80 miles away.
After months of wrangling with the Defense Department, Nunes and his fellow lawmakers had come to Lajes last May to urge American officials to reverse a planned downsizing of the base. The lawmakers wanted Pentagon officials to instead move a massive, strategically vital intelligence center planned for the United Kingdom to the isolated mid-Atlantic base. The officials objected, citing a cost increase of $1.2 billion and serious operational and logistical concerns, including the base’s single runway and the area’s inclement weather, which the congressmen had experienced just the day before.
An after-action report from a Defense Department engineer shows that the group from Washington wouldn’t take no for an answer. “A few of the members and staffers were very confrontational,” the report reads. “One quote that was repeated several times was, ‘This is going to happen [relocating the intelligence facility to Lajes]. You better jump on board the train or you are going to get run over by it.’”
The incident was another skirmish in the increasingly nasty war between Nunes and his allies in Congress and a group of top Pentagon officials over the fate of the obscure airbase. As chairman of the powerful Intelligence Committee, Nunes has brought the full weight of his influence to bear on the issue, inserting provisions in four separate defense bills that would stop work on the planned U.K. base and accusing the DoD of “lying” about the intelligence complex’s Lajes price tag. Recently, the House Oversight Committee opened an investigation into how the military calculated the estimated cost of basing the project in the Azores.
“These are just clueless Pentagon lackeys, bureaucrats that are spewing out garbage,” Nunes tells National Review.
Nunes’s opponents question the motivations behind his fight. The congressman has close ties to the Azores; as the descendant of Azorean immigrants, a major celebrity in Portugal, and a frequent contact of the Portuguese government, he’s led the opposition to the plan to downsize Lajes from day one. The fight began in 2012, when the Defense Department decided to reduce its footprint at the mid-Atlantic stopover, now averaging just two flights a day. “Those guys are just sitting around out there,” one DoD official says....................
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/421842/devin-nunes-pentagon-fight-lajes-air-force-base
Lacking E.M.T.s, an Aging Maine Turns to Immigrants
It is great to see good things happening in the U.S.
Lacking E.M.T.s, an Aging Maine Turns to Immigrants
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/us/maine-immigrants-emergency-medical-technicians.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYEMARCH 27, 2017
Photo
Ghislaine Bola, originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, allowed fellow students to practice spinal immobilization techniques during training at Southern Maine Community College in South Portland. The state is hoping that immigrants can fill some critical medical positions. Credit Tristan Spinski for The New York Times
SOUTH PORTLAND, Me. — Jolly Ntirumenyerwa ran her fingers over the stethoscope that she had slung around her neck. It was a comforting connection to her career as a physician in her home country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, where she worked in emergency medicine.
Her credentials did not transfer when she moved to the United States in 2012, and she could not work as a doctor. So, she took jobs as a health aide in an assisted living facility.
Now, thanks to an unusual program that is training immigrants to become emergency medical technicians, she is preparing to make better use of her medical background and, she hopes, work her way up to becoming a physician assistant if not, someday, a doctor.
“I want to do what I was trained to do,” Ms. Ntirumenyerwa, 37, said the other day as she took a break from her E.M.T. class, being conducted in a cavernous ambulance bay at Southern Maine Community College. “I put in a lot of years training to be a physician, and I don’t want to throw them away.”.............................
Ailing Vermont Town Pins Hopes on Mideast Refugees
Ailing Vermont Town Pins Hopes on Mideast Refugees
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/02/us/syria-iraq-refugees-vermont-rutland-plan.html?action=click&contentCollection=U.S.&module=RelatedCoverage®ion=Marginalia&pgtype=article
By JESS BIDGOODJAN. 2, 2017
Photo
Residents of Rutland, Vt., from left, Elizabeth Hinterberger, Nan Dubin, Eszter Tóth and Bayan Alsairy, are learning Arabic to communicate with the 100 Syrian and Iraqi refugees who might move to their city soon. Credit Jacob Hannah for The New York Times
RUTLAND, Vt. — They hustled into the church on a biting winter evening, unburdened themselves of scarves and gloves, and settled into pews to sound out words in Arabic.
“Ahlan fii Rutland,” said Fran Knapp, a retiree who lives about 20 minutes away, one of two or three dozen people who have attended a class here on rudimentary Arabic.
Welcome to Rutland.
It was one of many preparations this remote city in central Vermont is making before 100 refugees from Syria and Iraq arrive here over the next year, with the first expected to come later this month.
The plan’s fiercest advocate has been the mayor of Rutland, Christopher Louras, who has cited not the moral argument for resettling refugees, but an economic one: This shrinking city, long removed from its heyday as a marble producer and regional railroad hub, needs every new resident it can get. Syrian refugees, he has said, are an opportunity.
“Rutland’s demographic condition right now is not just one of a declining population, but it’s also a graying population,” said Mr. Louras, who became the mayor about 10 years ago as a Republican, but has since become an independent. “We need people,” he added.
............................................
The All-Male Photo Op Isnt a Gaffe. Its a Strategy.
I think there is a lot to this article and perhaps is spot on. 
The All-Male Photo Op Isn’t a Gaffe. It’s a Strategy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/opinion/the-all-male-photo-op-isnt-a-gaffe-its-a-strategy.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region®ion=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region
Jill Filipovic MARCH 27, 2017
During the great Republican health care debacle, President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence met with the far-right congressional Freedom Caucus to discuss, among other things, stripping out requirements for insurance companies to cover maternity, newborn and pregnancy care. After the meeting, Mr. Pence tweeted a photo of two dozen men sitting around a table. Kellyanne Conway was reportedly in the room, but in the picture the vice president circulated, there was not a woman in sight.
For liberals, the photo seemed like an inadvertent insight into the current Republican psyche: Powerful men plotting to leave vulnerable women up a creek, so ensconced in their misogynistic world they don’t even notice the bad optics (not to mention the irony of the “pro-life” party making it harder for women to afford to have babies). Political analysts treated the photo as a gaffe, the kind of rookie mistake we’re used to seeing from the Trump White House.
I’m not so sure.
This isn’t the first celebratory photo the White House has released of men cutting health care for women. When Mr. Trump signed the global “gag rule,” which pulls United States funding from organizations abroad that so much as mention the word “abortion” (even organizations that don’t provide abortions), he did it flanked by a half-dozen white men in suits. The rule is an order that primarily affects women in developing countries, who will see their access to contraception and even basic services like malaria treatment constrained by funding cuts that politicize global health. That image was similar to one of President George W. Bush surrounded entirely by grinning men as he signed a ban on a rare abortion procedure.
At some point, we have to ask: Is this really a pattern of errors? Maybe these aren’t tone-deaf mistakes at all, but intentional messages to right-wing supporters.
Photo
President Trump, in the Oval Office in January, showing his signature on the global “gag rule” on abortion. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times
President Trump ran a campaign of aggrieved masculinity, appealing to men who felt their rightful place in society has been taken from them by a stream of immigrants stealing their jobs, women who don’t need husbands to support them, and members of minority groups who don’t work as hard but still get special treatment............
............The incompetence of the boys’ club effectively saved funding for Planned Parenthood and insurance coverage of maternity care. But don’t expect them to learn the lesson that this should be the last female-free image (and female-unfriendly policy) the Republican leadership proudly touts.
For liberal women, this latest all-male photo is a visualization of our worst fears realized. For many Trump supporters, though, it’s evidence of a promise fulfilled.
Rachel Maddow Crushes FoxNews: Maddow beats O'Lielly & Lawrance beats Hannity HOOT!
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/03/27/rachel-maddow-crushes-fox-news-viewers-stampede-msnbc-gop-health-care-fail.html
Rachel Maddow Crushes Fox News
By Jason Easley on Mon, Mar 27th, 2017 at 5:58 pm
Rachel Maddow finished as the number one show on cable news, and MSNBC was the top network on cable news after the Republican health care bill failed in the House.
Rachel Maddow Crushes Fox News As Viewers Stampede To MSNBC After GOP Health Care Fail
Rachel Maddow finished as the number one show on cable news, and MSNBC was the top network on cable news after the Republican health care bill failed in the House.
On Friday after the health care bill failed, more viewers watched Rachel Maddow (3.058 million) then watched Bill O’Reilly on Fox News (2.363 million). MSNBC’s The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell (2.328 million) drew more viewers than Fox’s Sean Hannity (2.235 million). The only MSNBC program that did worse than Fox News primetime was Chris Hayes, but All In still drew 2.154 million viewers.
MSNBC has been on an incredible ratings roll since Donald Trump took office. According to an MSNBC statement provided to PoliticusUSA, “The Rachel Maddow Show at 9pm finished March 2017 as the #1 cable news show in the key A25-54 demo in the M-F 9-10pm time period. This marks the first time MSNBC has been #1 in the A25-54 demo during that time period ever, and the first time in almost five years since MSNBC beat FOX News in the demo in any hour for the month (previous was “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” in December 2012). “The Rachel Maddow Show” and MSNBC had its best total viewer delivery in the time period ever in the show’s eight-and-a-half years or network’s 20-year history and the best A25-54 delivery since November 2008. “The Rachel Maddow Show’s” total audience was up +106% over March 2016, while CNN was flat (+3%) and FOX News was up +11%. In the A25-54 demo, “The Rachel Maddow Show” grew +103% year-over-year, besting CNN (+14%) – attaining its biggest lead over CNN since February 2014 – and FOX News (+18%). For the first quarter of 2017, “The Rachel Maddow Show” beat CNN in both total viewers and A25-54. The show delivered its best total viewer delivery ever and best A25-54 delivery in the time period since 4Q08.”..........................................
Devin Nunes Just Gave An Interview That Was A Total Disaster For Trump
The interview video is at the link. I watched it live and left more confused than ever.
WHY did Nunes wait 3 days to provide his explanation??
Devin Nunes Just Gave An Interview That Was A Total Disaster For Trump
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/03/27/devin-nunes-gave-interview-total-disaster-trump.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
By Jason Easley on Mon, Mar 27th, 2017 at 7:05 pm
House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) ...................
.......................
Rep. Nunes refused to say who cleared him for admission to the White House. He also refused to deny that it was a White House staffer who cleared him for admission. The House Intel Committee chairman said, “Look, Wolf, I’m not going to get into sources and methods and how we review documents and classified information. This happens all over the Executive Branch, and it’s quite common.”
Wolf Blitzer told him that the records are going to come out anyway, and Nunes agreed, but still refused to disclose any information about how he got into the White House and who he was talking to.
.............................
The interview was a complete train wreck. Nunes offered answered to questions that contradicted themselves. For instance, Nunes tried to claim that his source was a whistleblower, but also that the whole process and the intelligence he saw were routine.
Nunes said that he thought what he saw in the documents was in his opinion wrong, but he refused to say that what he saw was illegal.
........................
The old cliche is that the cover-up is worse than the crime. In the case of the Trump/Russia scandal, the crime could be treason, and it is the cover-up that is going to intensify the investigation and scrutiny on Donald Trump.
https://twitter.com/PoliticusSarah/status/846499106910461952
https://twitter.com/KaivanShroff/status/846496381145681920
https://twitter.com/TPM/status/846502344401567745
First on CNN: Border wall ask: $1 billion for 62 miles
Source: CNN
First on CNN: Border wall ask: $1 billion for 62 miles
Updated 5:31 PM ET, Mon March 27, 2017
Story highlights
The request would include only 48 miles of new wall
The documents also claim that Trump's executive orders are already upping arrests
Washington (CNN)The Trump administration wants the first $1 billion of border wall funding to cover 62 miles -- including replacing some existing fencing along the southern border.
The $999 million requested by the White House in its budget supplement for just defense and border security spending would cover just 48 miles of new wall, according to justification documents from the Department of Homeland Security obtained by CNN.
The documents describe exactly where the administration hopes to put its first installment of the border wall, as it described its modest 2017 funding ask.
The money will fund 14 miles of new border wall in San Diego, 28 miles of new levee wall barriers and six miles of new border wall in the Rio Grande Valley region and 14 miles of replacement fencing in San Diego. The fencing would likely include concrete elements, a source familiar with the plans told CNN. ........................
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/27/politics/trump-border-wall-cost-distance/index.html
Call you reps and Senators here:
https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials
Paul Ryan
Ryan: (608)752-4050 (262)637-0510 (202)225-0600 press *6.
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